Denouement
by StarsInTheRain
Summary: Snow falls, the ninja gather, a promise is broken and another one made. Gaara stands in the cold, and contemplates Naruto Uzumaki with feelings that none can see. Based on the song 'Who Am I' by Casting Crowns. NONYAOI


This is based on two recent chapters in the Land of Iron, changed slightly. Who knows what Gaara was thinking?

**Denouement**

Naruto Uzumaki.

Four years ago, I did not understand you.

At this moment, I still cannot claim to say that I do.

In the glowing, softly falling white snow, you stand before me, sky-blue eyes clouded over with a storm of inner conflict, the curve of your jaw stubbornly set. Shadows fall from your form and drape across the seamless ground with black-edged clarity, all the mysteries that you still hold from me.

The shinobi system is tumbling down amid the chaos, despair, and hopelessness of war as we rest in the eye of the storm, and your feelings for the dark Uchiha remain as hard and impermeable as diamond, and more immovable than a mountain.

I do not know what you are thinking.

I do not know what the emotions are that stream through your heart with passionate heat.

I never have.

Your mind is alien to mine.

Our souls reject one another by our very differences, as always.

I have wanted, no, hungered, to know you from the instant that we both lay helpless on the forest floor, stained with dirt, blood and defeat.

I took heart from the knowledge that you still saw some flickering life in my dying spirit.

You steadfastly believed me to be worth something, obstinately clung to that fact with such resolve that I couldn't help but long to know that it was true.

Back then, one such as me could only feed off your hope, your innocence that I had pitied, but I also burned to understand with a raging fervour that I had never before felt in my life. That clear, crystalline innocence has seen you through so many trials and suffering.

All but the pain that is knotted in searing red, tying to Sasuke.

I have few terrors, but I fear, more than anything else, that he will be the one to effortlessly crush your dreams of a better world and your hope that he will return. Most of all, I fear that he will be the one to end your life, the life you have foolishly dedicated to him without a thought.

The life that Uchiha Madara covets like a priceless treasure for your demon fox.

The life that all the Leaf revere as a hero.

The life that I could never bear to lose.

Nevertheless, as long as I am alive, I will never let you fall, or waste the life you seem so determined on handing to Uchiha on a platter built from trust.

I will protect your strange innocence along with the Kyuubi, not for the nations, but only for you.

I _refuse_ to let you make yourself a willing sacrifice for him.

Not that I don't acknowledge your strength, for I am quite certain that now in combat, I would more than likely lose to you.

It is your own heart that I do not trust you with.

I _know _that he, given the chance, will break you.

So I will, _must_ make you understand that there are some causes in which nothing is gained from dying for.

With these words, I create a shield for your heart.

You saved me, and in turn, I will protect you every opportunity that I am able, until my last breath.

I have heard you proclaim your eternal commitment to save Uchiha, whether he desires rescuing or wants only to fester in his hatred.

Now it is time for me to make the same promise to you.

Ice crystals crunching under my feet, I walk silently up to you through the bitterly cold air, reach upwards slightly, and rest an ivory-white hand on your wide shoulder.

I speak the words that I hope will convince you in a calm voice that betrays nothing, but I know they will not.

If you were anything less than fiercely loyal, blindly devoted and steadfast, you would not be Naruto.

I should and will expect nothing else.

You are not like Uchiha, who takes the fire of your dedication and lets it die in the cold.

After all, if you were, I would not be here today.

Having failed, I farewell you, Hatake and the others, and fly away with fresh resolve, carve my way through the drifting snow and wind with icy flakes frosting on my back.

Suna may be the place and people I have given my lifelong devotion to, but my heartbeat does not reside there, and whatever soul I can lay a claim to will not ever rest there.

Do not believe otherwise, I care for my village, I love Kankuro and Temari, but all their regard, even the love of my siblings, was earned through work of years and unrelenting battle with Shukaku.

But at our first and only battle, when I had reached the end of humanity, had become a demon indistinguishable from the one inside me, depraved and blood-crazed, demented with death, eaten up by resentment and hatred, you glimpsed beyond all of it. Reached the pain that none else had known was there, understood me without conditions, judgement or reservation.

We had no blood ties.

We had no village ties.

We were enemies.

But somehow, you just knew, and that was enough.

You saw my sins, and looked on me with love.

For that reason, my current existence is credited to you, and to you only, a debt which I could never hope to repay, even if I had a thousand years.

At this moment in time, I do not guard you as a ninja, and nor as the Kazekage.

Naruto, you gave me back the life I had lost.

If Uchiha _dares_ to wound you beyond repair, as I said, I will show him no mercy.

I hold no illusions, you will be furious with me for interfering, if it comes down to it.

When you go to meet him, when the two of you meet in combat for the final time to decide the fate of all, I will be there.

The ice lies thickly on my back and neck, but I can still feel your warmth.

Then I know that at the end, even if I die, I will go content to know that you will live on.

And my last breath will hold only happiness.

For my life is yours.


End file.
